FAMILY PRACTICES LAY FOUNDATIONS 205
ing, and, as he becomes older, about the use of tiiti% energy,
goods, and services. His habits of thought and actioVfo these,,
years form the foundation of his adult behavior in theselJsjai^
ters.
FAMILY ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES LAY
FOUNDATIONS
The value and ways of teaching the young child to care for
his toys and clothes have been discussed.
Parents' ideas of the relation of money and material things
to intellectual and spiritual values in living color children's
attitudes toward them. The ability to manage one's material
goods need not overshadow higher values, but may add much
happiness to family life, provided each one in the family is
helped to become aware of and understand the family rela-
tionships which exist at the time. Several situations may
illustrate this: A young child wants to know why his daddy
works, and learns that he does so to earn money to buy food,
coal, clothes, an automobile, and other things to add to the
family's comfort. The older child in the home learns to turn
off the electric light when he leaves the room because it re-
duces the electric bill, thus leaving more funds for new clothes
or books, for Christmas, or for a holiday which is coming
soon. Mother has been too tired lately, so each member of
the family does a few extra things to lighten her load. Parents
are wise who try to keep the machinery of the household sub-
merged to social values even while operating on schedule be-
cause they believe that good management of time and effort
conserves human energy. One mother whose children helped
get the evening meal rotated the responsibility for keeping the
conversation at dinner interesting. Each child and parent
took week about in bringing to the table each evening one
or two current events, a story, or an anecdote. In this way
dinner became pleasurable, table manners were improved be-
cause tensions were eased, and social poise was developed.
Many parents believe that children should have firsthand